


Opposites Distract

by Anonymous



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Angst, M/M, No Happy Ending Fest, Not heavy but will tickle your soul, Trying to explain the meaning of life, actually not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:46:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29905455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A Grim Reaper, also known as Death, is responsible for escorting the fresh souls to their rightful place (afterlife, heaven or hell, whatever it may be). There's also an entity called Life, which makes it a challenge to take as many souls away from Death as possible, bringing them back to life and letting them live longer.Death doesn't feel like it's a loss. He loves losing to Life. He loves the huge smile on Life's face whenever he tugs a soul out of Death's grasp.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18
Collections: No Happy Ending Fest - 2020





	Opposites Distract

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt #:** Self-prompt  
>  **Prompt:** (as stated in the summary).  
>  **Pairing/Main character(s):** Sehun (the God of Death), Jongin (the God of Life)  
>  **Side Characters(if any):** None  
>  **Word count:** 1,602  
>  **Warning(s)/Additional Tag(s):** Angst, no happy ending, Jongin's a coward and Sehun's too reckless.  
>  **Author's note:** Surprise! 8D I'm sorry for hurting sekai, but I just **love it.**

It's supposed to be night time, but the sky is painted with various shades of orange. It's supposed to be winter, but the unnatural heat provides enough warmth for it to be considered summer. The little particles in the air could be mistaken for fresh snow, so light while dancing in the air, but it's just ashes. Ashes scattered by the wind. It's what left of the forest once it gets lost in the fire.

"Sehun?"

His head turns to the familiar voice behind him, eyes landing on a beautiful creature that resembles a human, but is far from one. He's wearing a long white robe, flowers and vines wound around his body, little branches like those on trees placed on his head like a crown. It's the one creature that could be considered the complete opposite of him.

"Ah, of course it's you. No one else wears a robe this dark and carries around a scythe."

Of course, he's the God of Death. His scythe is like his heart, because he doesn't have an actual heart like all humans do.

He's a guide. A collector of sorts. He finds a soul on the verge of death and lights up a path to the afterlife.

It's ironic, though. Him, dressed in pitch black robes, a dark hood covering where his face should be, how could he ever shine a light for someone?

And a Death God does not get to experience life in any way.

He releases a breath of acknowledgement and remembers the day when the God of Life caught him waiting for a young teenager to count her last breaths after a terrible traffic accident. He remembers when the God of Life reached out to hold the girl's wrist and suddenly, she wasn't counting anything at all. She was wide awake, being embraced by her crying parents, shocked doctors standing on the side completely speechless. It was one of his miracles.

It was the same day when the God of Life called himself Jongin and told the God of Death that his name would be Sehun from then on. The God of Death didn't understand why they needed to adapt something as human as names, but the smile that the God of Life carried while he said that was enough to convince him not to question anything.

"Jongin," he says in a voice deeper than the deepest well. There would be a smile on his face if his body wasn't made solely out of bones and no muscles or skin.

"Oh, you remembered," Jongin smiles in return, having been blessed with a lot of things that Sehun doesn't have. "I'm not going to let you have the trees either."

He gestures towards the spreading fire and holds out his hands, raising them to the sky, and then a high-pitched scream pierces Sehun's ears. It only takes a moment or two before it starts raining. And the rain is heavy enough to put out the fire, but the trees that have already been lost will give their soul energy to Sehun.

Yes, all living things have souls. Be it a plant or an animal. The only ones who don't have souls, supposedly, are the two Gods. Him, and Jongin.

But there are times when the God of Death—Sehun believes otherwise.

Those times when he watches Jongin with the most loving eyes. Those times when Jongin brings life to someone he's supposed to lead to the afterlife. Those times when Jongin reaches out for him, but never quite enough for them to touch.

They're opposites. And they're both unwilling to find out what would happen upon their contact.

Time has no meaning to them. They can be wherever they want, whenever they want. They can make it seem like they're at many places at the same time, always sticking to their duties. Because of that, Sehun thinks it's meaningless to call the feeling that blooms in his chest anything akin to love. After all, nothing blooms in his chest like it does on Jongin's.

"Sehun?"

He lifts his head, having just snapped out of a daze. Jongin is looking at him with so much kindness in his eyes that, for a single moment, he thinks he could come alive too.

"I want to hold your hand," he says all of a sudden and Jongin takes a step back, fear flashing on his facial features only for a split second, but it's enough for Sehun to catch it.

"We can't," Jongin says, crestfallen.

"Is it because you're afraid of the consequences?"

Sehun knows that he's stepping on a land mine, but he's still eager to hear Jongin's answer in hopes that that would be enough for him to let go of whatever's sprouting somewhere inside of him.

"Because..." Jongin sighs and his blonde hair slowly changes to grey, following the change of his mood. "Everything you touch only dies."

If not for the downpour that Jongin called forth, deafening silence between them would be inevitable. Sehun lowers his head enough for the hood to cover his face while Jongin chews on his bottom lip, so focused on a single spot on the ground that a flower pushes its way out of the dirt.

It’s a single blood red carnation.

Sehun doesn’t know if it holds any meaning.

He’s never been the type to find beauty in the flowers. In fact, he didn’t understand the whole concept of beauty at all until he started seeing Jongin so often that he couldn’t imagine a day without meeting him even during the busiest days.

“I can understand why you’re following me around, but why did you give me a name? Why do you smile at me like that?” He asks, voice coming out softer now and it’s almost drowned out by the rain.

Jongin looks up, feigning confusion. “Like what?”

Like all the life you create is meaningless if I’m not there to witness it.

When he’s like this, Sehun doesn’t know if pushing on is a good idea. Jongin is probably not going to admit to anything that would put him in a questionable light and Sehun will be left alone in the mess he had created.

“Forget it.”

Before he can turn around and walk away, he feels something closing around his arm. Upon looking back, he sees Jongin holding onto him, but he also notices how Jongin’s careful to only touch him through the robe.

It makes him furious. It makes him sick.

“Sehun, I—”

Without a hint of hesitation, Sehun jerks his arm out of Jongin’s hold and puts some distance between them before lowering his scythe, so Jongin cannot close the gap any longer. He chooses to stare at the ground in the meanwhile, suddenly turning into a coward who’s not willing to see the face Jongin’s making.

There’s not a lot of things that would kill him—in fact, there aren’t any at all. But the look of betrayal on Jongin’s face, the sadness on Jongin’s face—it would certainly lead him as close to death as he’s ever been, and he’s the God of Death, for fuck’s sake.

“If you refuse to acknowledge the hint of humanity that I have acquired, then I’m not interested in yours either. I’m the God of Death, I’m no Sehun or whatever other human name you could come up for me,” in that moment, he dares to look up, finally meeting the eyes he’s been avoiding. “We have duties to perform and we should only focus on them. Don’t hand out life to those who are destined to take my hand in the nearest future. Don’t go picking up human names for creatures like us and stop acting so innocent. You can make things bloom in a matter of seconds, I’m sure that you’re the reason why I’m choking up on whatever’s blooming inside of me right now.”

Jongin doesn’t say anything, but the flowers wilting on him show that he’s hurting. They show that Sehun’s speaking the truth and Jongin’s not quite ready to accept it. He will probably never be ready for that.

Suddenly, there’s a flash of lightning and Sehun moves before he even gets to think about it. The electrostatic discharge connects with his scythe and the weapon is knocked out of Sehun’s hand. He stands next to Jongin, holding onto his bony fingers that slowly turn to ashes, but the process stops at his wrist.

Jongin is looking at him, wide-eyed and confused, but Sehun knows exactly what that means.

A warning.

“Jongin,” he murmurs, straightening up and detaching his glare from the skies above in turn of looking at the God of Life next to him. “I guess you were right. I guess that’s our warning. I guess the game you play is the closest we’ll ever get to feeling the same feeling that humans develop for each other.”

It’s only after a good minute when he realizes that Jongin’s holding onto his bony hand directly, trying to will his fingers into growing back, but Sehun’s nothing like a flower.

He stares into the distance, eyes landing on the curve of the scythe and that’s when he figures it out – the curve of his scythe is probably the closest he has to a smile.

Perhaps when he was putting that scythe between him and Jongin, that was the first and the last smile he was willing to offer to the one he cares about the most.

The world is cruel, Sehun realizes.

But the one hiding above the clouds is the worst of them all.


End file.
